The TICCIT Program: Trees Into Cartons, Cartons Into Trees

April 17-21, 2017 * Your Hometown

TICCIT (pronounced “ticket,” which stands for “Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees”) is an outreach and educational program for school-aged children held every year at the end of April to honor Earth Day and highlight the renewability and sustainability of paper and paperboard packaging.

In the TICCIT program, member companies partner with a local school where they donate tree seeds or native saplings and teach students how to plant them in a plant in a milk carton, tissue box, or other paper-based carton. The students are then instructed to plan these "carton-and-tree units" in the ground. The cartons provide protection and a natural water funnel for the new trees. As the trees grow, the cartons biodegrade, completing the "trees into cartons, cartons into trees" cycle.

We encourage both members and non-members to participate, as well as schools and other organizations. FREE support materials are available for download at the bottom of the page.

Check out last year's video!

2016 Timeline

January–February: Call your local elementary school administrator and describe to him/her the basics of the TICCIT program and set a date for sometime at the end of April for your presentation. You can suggest speaking to just one classroom of students or multiple classes, outside in the playground, in a classroom, or in an in-school assembly area. Also determine who will lead the discussion—you or the teacher?

Finally, make sure to get an accurate count of how many students will be participating so you can properly judge how many saplings to order.

March: Order saplings from the Arbor Day Foundation or contact a local nursery to see if they will donate saplings or tree seeds for the presentation. The Arbor Day Foundation provides saplings to all PPC members for $1.10 each (+ tax) that are suited for growing in your part of the country. These saplings can then be distributed to employees, students, or teachers during TICCIT week. To place a sapling order, visit www.arborday.org/PPC. A minimum order of 50 trees ($50) is required.

Beginning of April: Remind your school contact to ask students to save their paperboard milk cartons either from the cafeteria or bring one in from home, making sure that they carefully wash them out first. Or you may prefer to supply the students with a generic paperboard box manufactured at your facility or even empty Kleenex boxes or paperboard juice containers. Or you can show students how to create a planter from uncut paperboard that you bring with you to class.

Mail out a press release to your local media on the upcoming TICCIT presentation and follow up with a phone call. Local newspapers and TV stations often see this as an excellent photo opportunity for showcasing area schoolchildren participating in something positive for the environment. This is also a great way to highlight your company’s commitment to your community and its young people.

To make sure that any photos taken at your activity can be used in ongoing TICCIT promotions, email photo releases to your school contact and ask that they be distributed to students. Then request that students bring in the forms signed by parents prior to the presentation date and ask that a copy of each form be provided to you.

TICCIT Week: Compile all the necessary materials for the presentation, make the presentation at your local school, and have fun!

End of April: Submit a post-event press release to the media. Since newspapers are notoriously short-staffed and overworked, you should also submit high-resolution photos from the event and if possible a pre-written article that includes a note that provides the editors permission to edit and publish the piece. In addition, submit the best photos taken at the event to the Director of Marketing and Communications at PPC, for posting on the PPC website, Facebook page, and a future TICCIT program guide.